


Salt the Earth

by keztion



Category: Far Cry 5
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-03
Updated: 2018-05-10
Packaged: 2019-05-01 12:42:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14520828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keztion/pseuds/keztion
Summary: Just some drabbles of my Deputy coming face to face with each of the Seed siblings.





	1. Chess

The cold wave of fear when he had felt the Bliss dart sink into his flesh was like the last gasp of a drowner before darkness consumed his consciousness.  
John’s men had been hunting Rook for a while now, he had almost turned it into a game, moving between locations and dodging them. Hadn’t counted on the chopper daring to go so close to one of the reclaimed settlements. It was a lucky shot, passing trees and going through bushes to claim its target.

When Rook awoke, it was with his shirt open and his hands tied behind the chair he was sat on. His head throbbed and his wrists creaked in that way that suggested he had been cuffed for a few hours more than was strictly healthy.  
His chest was bared for all to see. Surgical scars gleaming in the low light and his tattoos trailing lazily down his sides.

John stood across from him, a look of consternation on his face and a wicked looking knife in his hand. Fighting the awful throbbing that was likely post-Bliss hangover, the deputy pulled a feral grin,  
“Wanna know how I got these scars?”

A little joke to himself. Though, the reference might be wasted on a cult whackadoodle like John. From the cold glare he got, Rook’s smile grew larger as he realized that yes, John did get the reference.

“Does that make me Batman, Deputy?”, the idle quip was thrown over his shoulder as John turned to the table he had been leaning against. Laying the knife down, he started to switch between various weapons and tattoo guns on the table.  
“Well... if Faith is the Scarecrow, Jacob is Bane... and Joseph is Two-Face... I figure you’re the Joker here, Seed”

The backhand he gets makes his brain explode in more pain, but the smile doesn’t waver. Rook has made peace with the fact that Hope County is going to kill him, one way or another. Might as well go down burning the Seed family to the ground as much as he can.  
“Salt the earth, and all that”, he mutter aloud for good measure. The second backhand suggests John gets the pun, though maybe he’s just tired of Rook talking.

“I never expected the person causing so much trouble to be such a blathering idiot”, John’s eyes are bright with rage even though his tone is cool.

Sitting upright, Rook takes in the tattoo gun John has decided on. Writing the seven deadly sins all over his skin is going to ruin his tattoos, but on the bright side,  
“Pity you can’t gag me. Would stop me from saying Yes, right?”, Rook bares his teeth just as John does, “Pity there’s no official sin for talking too much”

Without a further word, John tosses the tattoo gun aside and grabs the knife. Before Rook’s screaming brain can register it, John is gripping his jaw and trying to force it open.  
“Y’know Deputy, you don’t need your tongue to say Yes”, he growls as the knife presses into his lips. The flash of adrenaline only helps Rook to keep his jaw clamped tightly shut as the metal scrabbles past his now bleeding lips to glance against his teeth and gums. John’s head is too far away to headbutt, but the air Rook forces out between his teeth sprays blood all over John’s face and clothes. Not as satisfying as spitting would’ve been, but the angrier John gets the more it seems he does want to cut the deputy’s tongue out.

No thanks.

Rook is saved by Joseph Seed, and he kind of hates that.

More specifically, a crackling of a radio, followed by Joseph’s voice calling out John’s name. With a hiss of frustration, the knife is cast aside and John moves to a corner of the room where the radio is.  
The conversation is barely worth listening to. Jospeh asking how the deputy is doing, how John is doing. How operations are proceeding. Nothing of value is revealed, and Rook figures that intentional. Joseph isn’t an idiot and he’s not going to underestimate Rook’s desire to fuck their operations up six ways to Sunday.

John isn’t looking at him, during the conversation, and that’s a mistake. The sweat running down his arms, combined with the twisting he’s been doing, has helped him wriggle out of the ziptie handcuffs. There’s a knife in his boot, and Rook has his own ideas on carving art into people. A small table with a line of prepped needles sits to his right, and Rook figures it’s more Bliss to knock him out once John tires of him. It sounds like the conversation is wrapping up and the deputy grabs one before John comes back.

 

* * *

 

Rook doesn’t escape with Hudson. It’s not for lack of looking for her, but this must not be where John is keeping her. The guilt gnaws at Rook’s stomach, but he’ll feel it later, when he’s not running for his life. He makes a quick stop in Fall’s End to let them know he’s alive before he books it across the river and into the Whitetail Mountains. He probably shouldn’t have left a calling card on John Seed but, let’s be honest, the wrathful part of Rook just snarled in satisfaction at it.  
He had left the youngest Seed alive, passed out from Bliss in the chair he had been planning to torture Rook in. Shirt open, hands cuffed behind his back, and a big old Rook chess piece carved into his chest. Rook had used that awful tattoo gun, made it all messy so the skin wouldn’t close nicely, even with stitches.

The literal note he had left in John’s lap simply read:  
“Matt 5:7″


	2. Caged

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rook spends time thinking while in a cage.

Jacob has him in a cage frothing from the mouth long before he receives his rook. It’s amazing how quickly the world fades away when you’ve got nothing but hunger and anger to keep you company.  
Rook wears the word ‘WRATH’ upon his sternum with an almost ironic amount of pride and he bears his teeth at anyone who walks past. Staci doesn’t look him in the eyes when throws food into the cage, never looks him in the eyes when Jacob does his rounds. He’s the epitome of the bottom of the totem pole, the subjugated of the pack.  
Jacob’s teachings make Rook question why the other cop is being held prisoner, but maybe Joseph is trying to convert all of them instead of killing them. In his brief moments of lucidity, Rook wonders if the lot of them were divided up incorrectly. Would the Marshal have not been much more effective as one of Jacob’s wolves? Would Pratt’s tentative kindness not have been better suited to Bliss?  
Hudson is a spitfire, she’d have fought regardless of where she had gone. The thought makes him smile briefly before that telltale curdling in his gut signals that he should be feeling guilty she’s still being kept prisoner.

“Cull the herd” becomes Rook’s least favourite phrase, while that tiny music box becomes an object he hates with every rational bone in his body.  
The irrational bones are all terrified of its music and the vicious haze of death that he so freely leaps into as soon as he hears the song. Rook sees the writing on the wall, both literally and figuratively, pretty early in the brainwashing process. They’re priming him for a purpose. He’s their Trojan horse, the beast that will tear Eli and the Whitetails out of their dens and rip their throats out to decay in the sun. Every day he becomes more convinced, and every day the cold pit of fear grows in his stomach as he realizes that he is going to be a liability wherever he goes after this.  
It’s just a song. Just a fucking song that could play anywhere and make Rook go feral.

If the Seeds aren’t going to kill him, they’re certainly working on removing any life he could have after getting Hope Valley under control.

* * *

 

Rook’s never been particularly religious.  Was always one for helping folks first and judging them never. His parents never particularly understood his stance, but it made him a good neighbour and a devoted son, so who were they to complain.  
That being said, the day Joseph visits him in the cage and tells him the story of his wife and daughter, Rook damn near reaches through the bars to chew the man’s tongue off. All he can see in his mind’s eye is a tiny baby girl, beautiful and already exhausted being brought into a world that was cold. Rook thinks of his niece and his sister, thinks about what kind of a person can kill a baby. He’s never enjoyed killing, but wiping Joseph off the face of the Earth is going to be a righteous pleasure.

As Joseph stands, clapping a hand on Jacob’s shoulder and telling him he’s done well, Rook manages to croak:  
“Picked verses for all of you”

It makes the two Seed brothers focus back in on him, and Rook knows he looks a little mad when he grins at them both.  
“How well do you know your Bible, Father? Finish it for me, Joseph”, he pauses and spits on the ground.  
“Blessed are those who hunger for righteousness”, he sees the flair of recognition in Joseph’s eyes and the muted confusion in Jacob’s.  
“For they will be filled”, the words are soft, but given that the compound is deadly silent Rook hears them just fine.  
“When I get outa here, I’ll be starving for righteousness, Seed”, he’s losing his voice after so long without really using his vocal chords, but the effect is pleasingly dramatic.

Joseph stiffly jerks his head towards his brother and Jacob moves to the bars, damned music box in hand. In the morning there is blood and body parts in Rook's cage, and his hunger only grows.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had John's interaction so clear in my head the entire time I was playing, but Jacob is a more complicated beast. So he may get his rook next chapter, when I can make it particularly satisfying, but I wanted some lead up.  
> Also, the story Joseph tells about his daughter made me angry enough that I wished my Rook could have maimed him then and there.

**Author's Note:**

> These will be brief and contain little to no plot. I enjoyed writing the interaction with John Seed and I plan to write one for each of the siblings. Hope y'all enjoy!


End file.
